(written on the 22nd)
Undisturbed. 🎉
Gratefully, I haven’t been Disturbed a single night this entire trip so far. It’s pretty crazy to think, but I’m just a couple weeks away from it being 2 months on the road!
And over 6000 miles traveled already. 🙃
Not so great on the wallet, but great to be visiting family and friends.
Anyway, I left my little spot in the middle of the forest relatively early and then headed over to crescent Lake since I was already there anyway. Figured I would go over to the little cliff jumping spot that my sister and brother-in-law told me about, just to check it out.
Unfortunately, it was super crowded, and I didn’t realize that it was going to be a really long walk to get to the spot, so I headed back down the road where I’d come from and stopped off at a little Park right on the lake edge.
Super duper clear water. I guess it’s so clear that you can see like 60 plus feet down? Something like that. Definitely super duper clear.
I just didn’t have the energy to go on that long of a walk to get to the spots where you can actually see it without a boat. It would probably be different if I had somebody with me, but it’s lonesome on the road, and seeing exciting and beautiful things are not anywhere near as exciting without someone to share them with.
I’m probably repeating myself from previous posts. 🙃
Figured I would spend a bunch of time in the park working online to try and get enough questions answered before the Thursday cut off rolled around, but I needed to do some online errands first, so, just for kicks, I called a local dental company that was offering a $59 first visit deal.
They had an opening for tomorrow at 11:00 a.m., and so I called them to see if they were okay doing a first visit for a patient that probably wasn’t going to be sticking around to actually have any work done, and the guy was like, yeah, no worries.
So I made an appointment. 🙃
Hopefully I’ll be able to get some useful information that’ll be good preparation for potentially getting dental work done in South Dakota. 🤞
Really hoping I don’t need a root canal. I should have just gotten fillings when I was the dentist last, but they were wanting so much money, and… ugh… Doesn’t feel like much money now compared to a root canal. 😅
By the time I got around to being ready to reach out to have the work done, I got a feeling like I shouldn’t have it done at the place that I was going to have it done at. I haven’t had a lot of luck with dentists in the past, so I didn’t have it done. I thought, well, maybe if I don’t feel good about that dentist, maybe I feel good about another dentist, but I just couldn’t get myself to feel good about making an appointment with anyone in Arkansas, so I figured I’d look into going to a dentist in Utah while I was there, but then my sister Heather said that she absolutely loved her dentist in Rapid City, and that felt fine, so that’s what I’ve been focusing on.
But symptoms have gotten a lot worse really quickly, and I’m guessing there’s a root canal on the horizon. U
Ugh.
Why didn’t I just get it done back then?
[sigh]
Cross the fingers and hope that it doesn’t need a root canal. 🤞
Anyway, I made that appointment for tomorrow, and then I ended up spending the next 3 and 1/2 hours or so on the phone with somebody close to me who’s having a rough time.
😞
Life is hard.
After that, I chatted with my friend Cory for a little while and figured since I was going to be on the phone, I might as well just head east.
So I pointed Rover’s nose toward Port angeles, where I got gas, and then I headed south along the Eastern side of the Olympic peninsula, taking the Tacoma narrows toll bridge to cut off about 40 miles of driving and gas, the toll being well worth the saved mileage and time.
From there, I headed toward what I thought was going to be a great place to spend the night in the national Forest southeast of Issaquah, knowing that I’d be going to the dentist in Issaquah in the morning.
Unfortunately, the first road that I chose to go down into the national forest turned out to have been closed at 6:00 p.m., and it was after 6:00 when I got there, so… no dice.
So I looked on the map and saw another place that looked promising, so I jumped back on the i-90 East heading closer to the mountains, pulled off, and headed up the road a bit. There were some signs that made it look like maybe I could park for up to 8 hours along the side of the road, but they were little confusing, so I wasn’t quite sure if that was actually true.
So I looked on the map again and saw a little road going up into the hills that looked like a dirt road, which I figured was my best bet, so I headed up the dirt road, winding around and around, passing some other vehicles that looked like they were camping out there, so I figured I had a pretty good chance. Kept heading up and up and up until I found a section of the forest that had been logged relatively recently, where the logging roads were Chris crossing the timbered hillsides.
Drove up toward the trees at the far end of the cleared area, and found a little spot to park my van. 🥳
I spent a good long time today listening to more old phone conversations from back in July of 2020.
Memories.
And still trying to figure out things that I was trying to figure out back then. 🙃
Actually, stuff I’ve been trying to figure out for over 15 years now. 😅
One day I’ll understand.
Gratitude:
- I’m grateful I was able to find a place to bed down for the night that was out of the way but not too far away from where my dental appointment is going to be.
- I’m grateful to be able to be a support for people who are going through rough times.
- I’m grateful to have been able to make an appointment with the dental place and that they were willing to give me the super crazy low discount price even though I wasn’t going to be coming back.
- I’m grateful that I’ve kept pretty decent text and audio records for important areas of my life that still merit attention.
- I’m grateful for AutoZone for taking my leftover oil from my oil change, as well as the jug the old oil was stored in.
- I’m grateful that I got 16 miles to the gallon on this last tank. 🥳 Of course, it might just be that the pump shut off a little bit early, but for now, I’ll take it!
Success:
- I put people who are important to me ahead of money, despite the chance of losing even more by not getting enough questions answered this week. 🎉
- I can’t remember very well, but I think I did pretty well again not using my phone in ways I shouldn’t while driving. 🎉
Improvement:
- Even though I made the choice to spend my time being there for my loved one, I don’t want to have the loss of money be a concern that even in the tiniest bit tugs at me in such situations.
Loves and hugs!
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 